Police Urge Parents To Warn Their Children About Online Dangers After Teen Sexually Assaulted In Own Home

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15 February 2019

Talk to your kids. That’s the message to parents after a 13-year-old boy was sexually assaulted by a man he met on Grinder.

Police have charged a 34-year-old man with assaulting the teenager. It’s believed the pair began talking on Tuesday and the next day the man visited the boy at his home a Killarney Heights.

It’s alleged he sexually assaulted the boy before leaving the area. Police were called the the boy was taken to hospital.

A man has been arrested and charged with assault.

Now the New South Wales police child exploitation unit is warning parents they must talk to their kids about the dangers of talking to strangers online.

“This is what we don’t want to happen in any case. Parents need to talk to their children about the dangers of the online world. Kids need to be really careful about who they are talking to online and what information they are giving to people online.” Detective Inspector Mick Haddow from the Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Squad said.

“We are not going to stop kids from talking and communicating via social media and other online mediums. And we don’t want kids to stop doing it – we want kids to be aware of the dangers, particularly when talking to people they’ve only met in that online space.

“We live in a world where people, unfortunately, use the internet and associated apps and devices to groom kids and sometimes it results in horrendous offending and the charge we saw yesterday.”

Parents need to talk to their kids and kids need to talk to someone do they trust if they feel uncomfortable about something.”